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Aboriginal people denied citizenship
The Constitution denies citizenship, franchise and the right to military duty to Aboriginal People, Asians and Africans. Indigenous people are not included in any census nor regarded as citizens, thus excluding them from civil liberties like Commonwealth voting rights, unless, as in South Australia, they already have the vote in State elections. -
QLD Aboriginal Protection Act
Torres Strait Islanders become subject to the Queensland Aboriginal Protection Act. -
WA Aborigines Act
Western Australian Aborigines Act extends control over reserves and gives wide powers to the Chief Protector who is made the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 16. -
Deportation of Pacific Islanders
The last Macassan voyage to Australia takes place during the 1906 – 07 season before the South Australian Government effectively refuses to grant fishing licences to non-Australian operators. -
Vic Aborigines Act | Dreadnought boys
Victorian Aborigines Act extends powers of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines to ‘half-castes’ as well as ‘full blooded’ Aboriginal people.
New South Wales devotes half the funds from the Dreadnought Trust to the immigration of British boys aged 15 to 18. Between 1911 and 1914, 1,787 ‘Dreadnought boys’ arrive. -
SA Aborigines Act | NT Aboriginals Ordinance
South Australian Aborigines Act makes the Chief Protector the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 21 with control over the child’s place of residence. The Chief Protector is replaced by the Aborigines Protection Board in 1939 and guardianship power is repealed in 1962. -
Aboriginal soldiers
World War 1. Outbreak of war halts immigration. The war ends in 1918.
Commonwealth War Precautions Act is passed, banning German immigration to Australia and enabling the internment of ‘enemy aliens’, mostly Germans, living in Australia. 4,000 residents of German background are deported.
Aboriginal people serve in the war despite the Defence Act 1909 which prohibits any person not of ‘substantially European’ origin from serving. Aboriginal soldiers are among Australian troops at Gallipoli. -
Separation of Aboriginal children
New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board is empowered to remove and apprentice Aboriginal children without a court hearing. This power is repealed in 1940, when the Board is renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board. -
Aborigines’ Progressive Association
Immigration Act is amended to allow government to exclude or restrict non-British immigrants for economic, industrial or racial reasons.
Big Brother movement is launched to assist British adolescents to come to Australia as farm workers.
Australian Aborigines’ Progressive Association is formed to oppose New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board. -
Aboriginal people killed
Following the killing of a European in Dala, Western Australia, 11 Aboriginal people are murdered in police custody; no prosecutions follow. -
Discrimination against Aboriginal people
Federal law for family endowment excludes Aboriginal people and instead payments go to Aborigines Protection Board. Aboriginal people are denied maternity allowance and old age pension.
Aboriginal people are banned from central Perth until 1948. -
Aborigines Act
Under the Aborigines Act, Aboriginal people can apply to ‘cease being Aboriginal’ and have access to the same rights as ‘whites’. -
Aboriginal Reconnaissance Unit
Darwin is bombed by the Japanese. In Arnhem Land, Aboriginal people make up a special reconnaissance unit in defence of Australia. Northern Territory Aboriginal missions are evacuated. Children evacuated after the bombing are transferred to Victoria, South Australia or New South Wales and some never return. -
Aboriginal assimilation
Federal Government convenes Australian Conference for Native Welfare, with every state and territory represented except Victoria and Tasmania, which claim to have no Aboriginal ‘problem’. The Conference officially adopts a policy of ‘assimilation’ for Aboriginal people. ‘Assimilation means, in practical terms, that it is expected that all persons of Aboriginal birth or mixed blood in Australia will live like white Australians do. -
Aboriginal vote
The Commonwealth Electoral Act is amended to give franchise to all Aboriginal people; that is, it extends the right to vote to Aboriginal people in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. -
Referendum on Aboriginal Rights
Constitutional Referendum on Aboriginal Rights is held. 90% of Australian population vote to eliminate sections 51 and 127 of the Constitution, giving the Commonwealth power to legislate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to include them in the Census.
Migration agreement is concluded with Turkey. -
Office of Aboriginal Affairs
Commonwealth Government establishes Office of Aboriginal Affairs.
Czech and Slovak refugees arrive in Australia following Warsaw Pact forces’ invasion of Czechoslovakia. -
Aboriginal Development Commission | Aboriginal sacred sites
Aboriginal Development Commission is established.
Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Ordinance is passed, instituting prosecution for trespass and desecration of Aboriginal sites. -
Australian South Sea Islander community recognised
Australian Federal Government officially recognises the Australian South Sea Islander community.